There are things happening in Oslo. As I wrote recently, there is a need to educate both bar staff and drinkers. Until recently this was not a problem at all, a we couldn’t get anything more exotic than stout from St. James’ Gate.

Beer list at Parkteatret

Looks like the breweries have had some capacity for domestic marketing. I am primarily talking about Nøgne ø, Haandbryggeriet and Små Vesen. Their beers are now available at a number of hand picked bars around Oslo. Nøgne ø and Små Vesen are even installing beer engines in some places, and Haandbryggeriets wheat beer is available on cask.

Having craft beer on tap is probably not a brilliant business plan in itself at the moment, particularly not for the breweries, who will have to do things by hand. But it is a great way to profile your brewery and your beers, so I hope it will give dividends in the long run.

As for us beer drinkers, we now see the outlines of the promised land. Come January, I think I’ll organize a pub crawl in Central Oslo, focusing on craft beer. Three bars are on my list so far: Bar & Cigar, Parkteatret and Olympen.

Ægir Christmas Brew at Olympen

Bar & Cigar are having beer events and offer both Nøgne ø and Haandbryggeriet beers on tap. Their fridge has a nice range of domestic and import beers.

Parkteatret has a craft beer list prominently displayed, and the prices are very fair compared to the state monopoly stores.

Olympen had the lovely Ægir Christmas brew yesterday, and I was happy to see people drinking craft beers during my brief stay. They have decent prices, too.

U.S. border police pulled over a van decked out as a beer delivery truck close to the Arizona-Mexico border and discovered it was packed with illegal immigrants, authorities said on Tuesday.

The white van painted with fake Budweiser beer logos was pulled over north from Sasabe, a small town on the Mexico border southwest of Tucson, early on Monday, said Tucson sector Border Patrol agent Mike Scioli.

Well. As long as they don’t use logos from decent breweries, it’s all right with me. But it gives a new meaning to the term beer travel, doesn’t it?